A Christmas Tree

Now let’s talk about an extremely rare Christmas film, A Christmas Tree!

“The Tree, I mean Mrs. Hopewell will be fine!”

                                                -The Mayor from A Christmas Tree.

          No, not that piece of crap brought to you by the storyboard artist of He-man, I mean the one with Charles Dickens.

Mary and Peter meet Charles Dickens at their house. They imagine how Charles remembered how he celebrated Christmas with the tree being bigger than life (I’ve seen one that’s half the average of the Rockefeller Tree) with toys and ornaments being plot points.

Peter Pepper Piper came to life to warn the Essence of Christmas is lost, and it’s up the beanstalk.

They go up the beanstalk as they encounter Percival (the life size mouse. He doesn’t like to be called Percy and Sir Not Appearing In This Film.), Esmeralda the maid, and Horatio the giant. No, he not friend to Hamlet! Yes, the same beanstalk and giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, and this happened after Jack chop down the stalk down. (There, Herman and Mortimer, the giant lives. Are you happy?)

The Christmas Essence has been captured by the evil wizard, Fuu Man Chu- I mean Mantu. (Oh god, this won’t fly well today. What doesn’t work in Willy McBean won’t work here.) They came across King Thurgood of the Getty Wine, as they’re put in the dungeon that can easily break out and beat up the guards.

Mantu has a snow dragon of Orgatha named Orlando attacking the kids. (Not to be confused with Orlando the Puss in Boots. I might as well call it Bizarro Orlando, Flordia.) Mantu deals with Peter and Mary himself with his targeting icicle on his magic carpet.

What does this have to do with Christmas, Charles Dickens, and the Christmas Tree. It would be an insult that this would be on par with The Christmas Tree, but at least its better animated, and has a tense moment of an adventure. In terms of Rankin Bass Christmas, it’s one of the weaker ones, but not the weakest one.

It’s like they put together all the short rejected Festival of Family Classic’s episodes of Jack & The Beanstalk, Candyland, what could be the last episode of Reluctant Dragon where he gets killed, The Jungle Book, and whatever Mantu was a part of. This makes the story fragmented, and it’s only tied with winter background and Peter & Mary, but they can replace with any similar kids with same voice actors such as the kids from Jack O’ Lantern, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, or Tom Sawyer. That’s pretty bad when Cricket on the Hearth is more of a cohesive Charles Dickens story than this. It’s interesting that we see the Snow Dragon again in Rudolph and Frosty in Christmas in July.

The only way this makes a quart of sense is this is all of their adventure is all in Peter and Mary’s head. They’re imagining this, and would imagine on how they would solve the dilemma. They do wake up in the end, so there’s the evidence.  It’s kinda funny how Billie Mae Richard is trying to pull a British accent.

I have heard the actual story of A Christmas Tree- by Charles Dickens through audio book and the story sound familiar. (Give me some credit, it’s quicker than to find and read an actual book I don’t see nearby.) It was kind of close to the book, except there were more fairy tale characters such as Red Riding Hood, Noah’s Ark, etc. Honestly, if this was the last episode of Festival of Family Classic with all the characters the story they would encounter with have their own episode, then it the series would be fully realized with A Christmas Tree being an epic finale.

As an episode of Festival of Family Classic, it’s passable. As a Rankin Bass Christmas Special, it’s not as strong. If you’re interested to see this to say you seen all of the Rankin Bass Christmas Special, then go watch this to complete it. Otherwise, this is a decent alternate when you’re tired of watching Christmas Carol, and needed a break from laughing at Cricket on the Hearth. With that said, let’s continue with the none continuity Christmas films with Twas The Night Before Christmas.